Starter for explosion-engines and self-propelled vehicles.



D. B. GARDNER. STARTER FOR EXPLOSION ENGINES AND SELF PROPELLED VEHIGLES.

APPLICATION FILED DEO. 4, 1909. 1,037,466. Patented sept. 3, `1.912.

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STARTER POE EXPLosoN ENGINES AND SELE PROPELLED VEHICLES. APPLIOATIONTILEDEDVBO. EL `1.909.

1,037,466, l v Patented Sept. 3,1912.

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` the following is a specification.

STARTER FR E-XLOSON-ENGNES ANI) SELF-PROPELLED VEHCLES,

memes.

Speccaton of Letters Patent. l

'DELAMERE B. GARDNER, GF CHICG, LLINOS.

Patented sepas, rare.

Appncaiion inea December 4, 190e. serial No. 531,293.

To all whom t may concern:

Be it known that I, DELAMEBE B. GARD-- Nun, a citizen of the United States, residing at Chicago, in the county of Cook and State of Illinois, have invented a new and useful Improvement in Starters for Explosion-EnA gines and Self-propelled Vehicles, of which '.My invention relates to'cert'ain new and useful improvements in starters for explosion engines and self-propelled vehicles, and is fully described and explained in the speer fication and shown in the accompanyingdrawings, in which:

Figure l is a side elevation of my im'- proved device showing the same in the position which it occupies with reference to the adjacent parts of the running gear of a vehicle; Fig. 2, a top-plan of the device on a somewhat larger scale than Fig. 1; Fig. e, a central vertical section through the device, and Fig. 4 is a section on the line 4 of Fig. 3.

The device. herein shown and described is designed as an improvement upon a device of the same general character and for the same purpose'which is shown and described, and broadly claimed in my application filed December 10th, 1908, Serial No. 466,803, and it will be understood that the construction here illustrated is to be placed in substantially the same general position and ar rangement with reference to the other parts of the ruiming-gear of the vehicle, as is that device, and for that reason it has not been deemed necessary to illustrate all of the running-gear of the vehicle as was done in that application.

Referring to the drawings :MA is a transmission-gear of a vehicle, the same being connected at its forward end through the medium of a clutch with the internal combustion engine in the usual manner, it being understood' that my present device, lilie that of my application referred to, is adapted to be inserted in an automobile without material alteration thereof.

B is the driven shaft which extends rearwardly from the transmission-gear and can be rotated either forwardly or backwardly by setting the transmission-gears according to well-established practice.

C, C1, are the two-parts of a hollow-drum, which in practice are made of sheet-steel pressed into the desired ferm, the part C being forced. over the part C1, .prefere hydraulic or other pressure and edge turned down, in the manner illustrated to make a firm and solid connection. vThe part C of the` case carries a boss c, to* which the driving-shaft B is keyed, so that the case and diving-shaft rotate together.

D is the driven-shaft which is arranged in line with the driving-shaft B and extends forward to a point at, or just within',` the rear end of the drum.

E is a sleeve projecting through the rear face of the drum and journaled to rotate with respect thereto. The sleeve E is keyed against rotation to the shaft D, its forward end is countersunkto receive-the rear end of the boss c, and its rear end is squared to ref2, which furnish pivotal support for .the furcations g on the end of a clutch-operating fork G, The clutch-operating fork G is provided with a roller g1 which bears against the rear face of the case, or drum, as illustrated, thereby furnishing a medi'al fulcrum for said clutch-operating fork, and it is also provided with a connecting cord or wire g2, through the medium of which the end of said lever' can be operated. .The clutch-collar F is normally spring-pressed forward by a spring f3, confined between itself and a projecting bead e at the rear end of the sleeve E. The rear face of the drum carries a platev H formed with clutch teeth f1. adapted to engage with the clutclrteeth f.

It will be seen that by the foregoing construction an arrangement is proviided whereby the driving and driven shafts are held firmly in line, whereby the drum is lirmly secured to the driving-shaft and whereby a clutch l:is secured to the drivenshaft, which is so arranged as normally to engage with the drum. It will-be seen from the drawings, furthermore, that the clutchteeth f, /L are lprovided with squared-longitudinal edges, and beveled opposing faces, the bevels running in such direction that they will slip ast each other` when the parts are being relfi ively rotated in the direction wind up the spring, which will l either byreasen of the stopping one part,

or the speeding up of the other, whereupon the clutch-teeth .will automatically engage and lock the parts firmly against further relative movement. l

'The forward. end of the sleeve E within the drum is milled out, as shown in Fig. 4C, to lform a hook el, adapted for engagement with the end of the spring. The spring is best illustrated in Fig. 4, from which it will be seen that it is of a flat, or strap, shape, that it is bent back upon itself so as to form a loop z' at its outer end, through which passes a pin 1, by which the end of the spring is attached firmly tot-he drum. This bending back of the spring upon itself is made at a -point a considerable distance from the end of the spring so that the spring isdbruble for a considerable length, enough of the springbeing made double in this man/ner, in

the form of device here illustrated,r to encircle the drum four and one-half times when the spring is loose. The .spring then continues with la single thickness for several more turns about the drum, Athat portion whichimmediately surrounds the sleeve E being bent in to form ahook, then back upon itself at 2, and thence out, parallel to itself in a circle 3 to a position in contact with the outer surface of the length of the spring just preceding the bend i, the loose end of the spring being carried back a few inches in the manner illustrattd. The entire space within the loop or circle thus formed is filled up with metal so that this loop or circle becomes a solid hook, the form of which can be best seen in the drawings. This spring arrangement I consider to be of very Vgreat importance and it has several points of because the entire compression must be performed in the first turn without any assistance whatever, while after the first turn is made, the work put into compressing the contents of a cylinder is largely returned by the expansion thereof thereby greatly facilitating the'second turn. A spring wound up in the manner' in which the spring of my device is wound gives off its energy as it unwinds from the turns successivelybeginning with the outside. The great extra stiffness of the outer turn of the spring of my device causes the first few turns to be made with very much greater force than the remainder, with the result that by this simple expedient I am enabled to increase vice.

greatly the 'capacityof a given-sized starter or handling theengine. In other words, by adopting this double .spring whereit can be effective during the first few turns, it becomes'possible to use a. starting-device of small sizeand light weight, where if the spring were arranged to give off its power equally throughout its unwinding a very much heavier and stronger spring wouldthan'ltrie hook? so asito engage first with the botto` ofthe hook, there is a very long leverage afforded which will tend to break .off the spring at the extreme end of the bend.` Even in case the spring and hook fit i with mathematical accuracy, the, spring vtends to have its hookstraightened out, in

which casel there is a considerable breaking leverage which may in time derange the de- VVith the present form of construction, it will beseen that any leverage .which may be exerted by the hook c1 is very small, and that the loop 3 being built up solidly with metal must move as one piece and con-- sequently any strain put upon the hook will tend to move the hook bodily outward inv a radial direction. As a matter of actual fact, the force is practically tangential andis directed substantially at a point which. is

marked i4 on the drawings for the purpose' of clearness. The tangential force working on this point might tend to move ontw-ard; but such outward movement is entirely prevented by reason of the fact that this vpoint lies immediately beneath the next turn of the spring, and the inward pressure of this next turn. which of course increases With the winding force, eifectually prevents such out-y ward movement. spring is therefore so designed as to resist withI the greatest eiiiciency all the strains which may be thrown upon it in practice, but it is still made of such form that when the spring is loosened, as it is after the engine has been started, the hook can readily spring out owing t-o the fact that it is released from pressure with the next succeeding turn.

For purposes of convenience the entire starting-device is mounted in a frame J which forms a casing for a rearwardly extending driven-shaft and in practice is connected, or may in cars of the type where such connection is desirable be connected, with the case of the differential gear. It will be seen that the device, as a whole, when made in this form, is a single unitary form The hook-end on thev which can be applied without diiiculty Vto any car and that the operating mechanism therefore requires no pivotal support to the frame-work of the car, the clutch-operating lever being so arranged .as to require only the attachment of a cord'or Wire to operate it.

It will be understood, of course, that this device is operated in the same way as the device of my application referred to. This general mode of. operation is as follows: he car being at rest with the'shaft D held by engagement of the wheels with the mences V'to rotate in the reverse direction from that in which it normally runs and resultantly winds up the spring. As the mainclutch of the vehicle is thrown in, the clutch collar F .may be released because owing to the beveling of the teeth it will not goin as long as ,the parts are moving relatively at a reasonable speed. When the spring isfully wound, the clutch will go in and a backward Jerk on the machine will signify to thev operator that the spring is fully wound and that power is being transmitted to thel backwheels. The operator will then unclutch the engine, set the gears'at forward and drive away. When the engine is .stopped and it is desired to start the same, the main clutch is thrown in, the transmission gears are set at forward and the clutch collar F thrown out. The back wheels hold the shaft D stationary and the spring therefore causes the engine to rotatein the proper direction. In the device of my application aforesaid, an alternative y"method/of operation is y ossible, in that a band-brake is provided or the drum and the spring can be wound up when the car is being stopped by setting this brake in which the momentum of the vehicle will cause" the winding of the spring. Thedevice as v'shown here is not provided with a brake-band, and is therefore necessarily operated in the second manner set forth in that application. That is, the spring must be wound by setting the transmission gears of the automobile in reverse position (or the position which they occupy when the automobile-runs backward) and cation of a brake-band in the manner set forth in that application, as the rst inode of operation can readily be adopted.

I realize that considerable variationis possible in the details of construction of my the spirit of my invention an I do not in= Vtend therefore, to limit myself to the specific form herein shown and described.

wat I regard as new, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is

1. In, a spring-operated motor-starter, a central hub and a spring having a ratchet connection therewith through the medium of mutually engaging hooks on the hub and spring, the hooks being arranged so as to engagel approximately in the plane of the first turn of the spring about the hub, whereby the braking-leverage is shortened and engagement .is maintained when the spring is Wound by the second turn of the spring pressing against the first.

2. In a spring-operated motor-starter, a

'central hub and a .spring having a ratchet connection therewith through the medium of mutually engaging hooks on the hub vand spring, the hooks being arranged so as to engage approximately in the plane of the first turn`ofthe spring about the hub and being produced by forming a properly shaped depression in the otherwise cylindrical hub, whereby the first turn of the spring' occupies a substantially circular form when wound, the breaking-leverage is shortencd and engagement is maintained between the spring and hub by pressure of the second turn of the spring on' the iirst turn, when y wound.

3. In a motor-starter, the combination with a driving and a driven shaft arranged 

